1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for harvesting crops. More particularly, the present invention relates to a direct harvester which enables the direct harvesting of crops such as beans and peas without requiring the crops to be windrowed prior to harvesting.
2. State of the Art
The harvesting of certain plants such as beans or peas raises several problems for farmers and significantly impacts the profitability of raising such crops. For example, a bean plant, such as that shown at 10 in FIG. 1, was traditionally cut by a blade 26 which passed shortly below the upper surface 14 of the soil 18 in which the bean plant was grown. The cut bean plants 10 were then formed into windrows and allowed to dry for several days. The windrows of dried bean plants where then collected by a combine and processed to remove the beans from the remainder of the plants.
While such a system has been used for many years, it suffers from some serious drawbacks which significantly interfere with the profitability of raising beans. One major disadvantage of the conventional method discussed above is the requirement of windrowing the plants. Cutting the plants and forming windrows to allow plant drying is time consuming. Likewise, collecting the plants from the windrow is also time consuming. Thus, the farmer is forced to go over each piece of farm land twice in order to harvest the crops. This, of course, wastes time and money, as additional help must often be hired to ensure that the windrows can be harvested in a timely manner. Furthermore, the speeds at which most farm implements will travel while forming the windrows or collecting the windrows is usually quite limited.
Another problem with the formation of windrows is that it leaves the farmer at the mercy of the weather. If the beans are sitting in a windrow, a heavy rain can ruin portions of the crop. Even a light rain can cause problems as the beans must be allowed to dry out before they are harvested. Additionally, strong wind storms may disturb the windrows and cause additional loss of the crop.
In order to overcome these disadvantages, attempts have been made to directly harvest the bean plants. As part of these attempts, the bean plants are cut slightly above the surface 14 of the soil 18. Presently, such systems use large cycle or blades 30 which move with a scissor-like action slightly above the soil 18. While such systems have reduced the time required to harvest the beans by omitting the collection of windrowed plants, and have decrease the amount of loss due to rain, etc., while the plants are windrowed, the loss is still relatively high.
One major problem with the current direct harvest approaches is that the pods 22 containing the beans are disposed near the ground in many varieties of bean plants 10. Thus, it is common for the pods 22 to be shattered by the cutting element 30 which moves along the surface 14 of the soil 18 and which shears the stem of the bean plant 10. Once the pod 22 shatters, the beans contained therein fall to the ground and are lost. The loss rates caused by shattered pods 22 can be substantial. Currently, such a system may expect to encounter a loss rate of between 23 and 27 percent of the bean crop.
Another problem with this approach is that the cutting blades 30 have a tendency to periodically lift soil as they cut the plants. The soil is moved with the plants and enters the combine. Inside the combine, the soil can cause considerable wear on the threshing mechanism and other components which work the combine. Thus, the useful life of the combine is significantly reduced and down time is increased. For this reason, most firms which lease combines specifically prohibit the use of their combines with direct harvesting devices.
Still another problem is that the current attempts at direct harvesting is that the machine must move very slowly to prevent the loss rates from being unacceptable. Thus, considerable time is required to harvest a given bean crop, potentially increasing the number of machines which must be used to harvest the crop within the desired time period.
Thus, farmers are faced with the dilemma of using the traditional cutting approach and losing a significant amount of time, and potentially a significant amount of the crop, or using the current direct harvest approach and suffer considerable crop losses and damage to their combines. In light of the significant disadvantages of either current approach, there is currently a need for a harvesting apparatus and method which enables the harvesting of peas and beans in such a manner as to decrease loss during the harvesting process, increase harvesting speed and decrease the amount of soil which enters the combine during current direct harvesting approaches.